New York Comic Con (NYCC) wrapped up the ultimate celebration of pop culture this weekend, as more than 200,000 attendees made their way through the Javits Center from October 17 through October 20 to experience the best of fandom, from a star-studded celebrity lineup, to iconic comic creators, must-have merch, and so much more. With scores of fans making their way to the Big Apple from across the country, this year’s NYCC is projected to have generated an estimated economic impact of $80 million for New York City, according to New York City Tourism + Conventions.
Among the stand-out guests and programming at this year’s show, highlights included panels filled with exciting announcements, sneak peeks, and trailer drops from some of the most popular and anticipated series including HBO’s The Penguin, Apple TV+’s Shrinking, Starz’ Outlander, The Lord of the Rings: The War of Rohirrim, The Walking Dead Universe, Disney+’s Goosebumps, FX’s What We Do in the Shadows, HBO’s Dune: Prophecy, and Netflix’s The Electric State, appearances by major stars like Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Orlando Bloom, John Boyega, and cast members from House of the Dragon, and never-before-seen clips from upcoming films including M3GAN 2.0, Venom: The Last Dance, Karate Kid: Legend, and more. Seats filled for panels featuring discussions from the best in comics with programming like Marvel Comics: Next Big Thing, Moon Man Panel featuring Kid Cudi, Charlamagne Tha God Presents ILLuminati – Hip-Hop and Comics Collide in New AWA Graphic Novel, IDW Publishing: The Next 25 YearsFears, and others.
The show floor was buzzing with con-goers looking to get their hands on the hottest merch from over 650 top exhibitors like Funko, Bandai, ThrillJoy, Marvel, Penguin Random House, Scholastic, Capcom, Webtoon, and others, while over 500 Artist Alley participants filled the show floor, featuring the fan-favorite works of Jeff Lemire, Dexter Vines, Darryl “DMC” McDaniels, Frank Cho, Jimmy Palmiotti, and Tom Taylor, and many more.
Cosplay took center stage at the Cosplay Central Crown Championships qualifier competition on October 19, where cosplayers from the region showed off their astounding craftsmanship for a chance to be selected to be in the running for the Global Cosplay Central Crown in 2025. Third place went to A Rad One Cosplay as Din Djarin from The Book of Boba Fett, while second place went to Caity Stella Cosplay as Cinderella from Fairy Tales. Patterner Cosplay as Firesong K’Treva from Valdemar series by Mercedes Lackey was crowned this year’s NYCC champion. The event, which was emceed by one of the biggest names in cosplay, Yaya Han, drew a crowd full of fans to watch as judges Plexi Cosplay, Alliecat Cosplay, and Ludus Cosplay cast their vote for the best of the best of this year’s cosplay.
“The energy and sense of community that the fans brought to New York Comic Con this year was unparalleled. Their passion for all things pop culture is the driving force behind our goals to uplevel the event each year, and we are honored to have brought them another stellar weekend where they could further connect with the fandoms they love,” said Kristina Rogers, VP of ReedPop US Comics Portfolio and Star Wars Celebration.
This year, the top headliners and biggest entertainment panels from NYCC were live streamed to a global audience for free through ReedPop’s official partnership with creative development and production solutions company Paragon Creative Agency. The NYCC Livestream was powered by Disney Lorcana Trading Card Game by Ravensburger. Fans who were not able to make it in person were able to enjoy all of the must-see pop culture content NYCC had to offer via two concurrent streams for both the Main and Empire stages each day on Popverse, ReedPop’s pop culture news site, as well as on their media partner’s Screenrant, Collider, CBR, The Illuminerdi and Nerdist’s social channels, further extending NYCC’s impact.
NYCC will return to the Javits Center next year on October 9-12, 2025. ReedPop is partnering with NYC Tourism for its official ‘Founded By NYC’ campaign, which will celebrate New York City’s enduring contributions to national and global culture as part of the festivities around the City’s 400th anniversary and United States’ 250th anniversary. More details will be unveiled in the coming months.
You can check out highlights of New York Comic Con news at NewYorkComicCon.com and on Facebook, X, and Instagram, in addition to pop culture news site, Popverse.